Book One: Water: The Southern Air Temple
by thatlittlebluehouse
Summary: Book One: Water: The Southern Air Temple
1. 3-1 Katara

A hundred years had passed, and my brother and I discovered the new Avatar. Althouth his Airbending skills are great, he has a lot to learn before he's ready to save anyone. But I believe Aang can save the world!

One of our first stops on the list of places to rest and see on our journey to the North Pole was Aang's home. The Southern Air Temple. We'd been flying for a long time the air was still cold but it seemed to be thickening. Sokka and I had taken our outter coats off a few times on the journey. Something we did rarely wear we came from. Looking down from my saddle perch on Appa's back I saw the world as I had never seen it before. The clouds were close enough to touch, the water was a thousand shades of blue and black and green. The sun was warmer than I'd ever felt before and the green of leaves which I'd never seen except in books speckled the islands below.

Appa had settled on a beach for the night. The next morning we began to load our things and break down our camp. Sokka was still asleep.

"I can't wait til you see it, Katara. This Air Temple is one of the most beautiful places in the world!" Aang flitted around Appa, grabbing things and making sure he was comfortable.

"Aang, I know you're excited, but it's been a hundred years since you've been home." I told him slowly, not wanting to come right out saying that the entire nation and culture of Airbenders had been slaughtered to extinction by the Fire Nation long ago.

"I know Katara! That's why I am so excited." he didn't seem phased.

"It's just that a lot can change in all that time." my voice was so soft when I spoke these words.

"I know," he assured me. "I just need to see it for myself." I still wasn't confident about his understanding of the situation we were about to walk into.

Finally we were packed except for Sokka and his sleeping bag.

"Wake up, Sokka! Air Temple, here we come!" Aang called excitedly to a snoring lump of Sokka stuffed inside a fur lined sleeping bag.

He made a familiar face. Sokka crinkled his noes and squeezed his eyes shut as tight as he could. He made a groaning noise before rolling away from the direction he had heard Aangs voice coming from. "Sleep now. Temple later." was the most we understood from the grunts and mumbles he offered us.

Without a moments hesitation, Aang found a stick nearby on the ground. He very lightly ran one end of the stick along the foot of Sokka's sleeping bag.

"Sokka! Wake up! There's a prickle snake in your sleeping bag!" I was already laughing at the whole thing even before Sokka jumped up still wrapped in his fur sack and began hopping and screaming to get it off. Sokka fell face first into the sand of the Earth Kimgdom beach just south of the mountainous island range where the Air Nomads made the home of their southern most temple. "Great!" Aang said playfully with a touch of sarcasm, "You're awake. Let's go!"


	2. 3-2 Zuko

We docked in a harbor of several other Fire Nation ships. Our vessel may have been the dingy ext to these monsters. Naval ship demanding crews of no less than a few hundred. I hesitated to dock with so many Fire Nation nationals, but what choice did I have. It took every man onboard to free us from the ice and snow the Avatar toppled upon us. The damages need to be repaired. The ship barely made it with thew simple patches we fashioned just to get this far.

My uncle and I cautiously walk down the ramp to the dock.

"Uncle." I turned to the old man walking beside me. "I want the repairs made as quickly as possible. I don't want to stay too long and risk loosing his trail." I looked around warily, not sure what to expect of the soldiers here.

"You mean the Avatar?" Uncle asked. I whipped around to glare at him.

"Don't say his name on these docks!" I hissed at him. "Once word get out that he's alive, every Firebender will be out looking for him, and I don't want anyone getting in the way."

"Getting in the way of what, Prince Zuko?" My ears pulled back on my skull hard when I recognized the voice. Uncle's did the same. We turned to see the tall middle aged man. His hair was pulled back tight in a small loop and he had a think bread growing on either side of his face, leaving his chin bare. He stood tall and straight, even as he walked toward us. His uniform was freshly pressed, and had many achievement medals hanging on the left breast and shoulder.

"Captain Zhao." I greeted him, not exactly with respect.

"It's commander now." he said giving me a suspicious look. He turned to my uncle and tilted his head in a bow. "And general Iroh. Great hero of our nation."

"Retired General." my uncle corrected him, bowing his head in a show of respect.

"The Fire Lord's brother and son are welcome guests anytime." the commander assured us. "What brings you to my harbor?"

My uncle turned to motion to the ship looking rather pathetic behind us.

"Our ship is being repaired."

"That's quite a bit of damage." he replied see the dents, holes, and melted iron all across the from of the ship.

"Yes!" I offered, a little too fat and a little too high pitched. "You won't believe what happened. Uncle, tell Commander Zhao what happened." I panicked, thinking that surely my uncle could get us out of this. The great hero of our nation that he was. I was a terrible liar.

"Oh, Uh, yes. I will do that. It was incredible!" he began to my relief. "What did we crash or something?" he asked turning to me. My stomach dropped.

"Yes!" I cried. "Right into a... Earth Kingdom Ship." I had known the moment my mouth opened that my quavering voice would give me away. By then it was too late. We had to stick with it.

"Really?" Commander Zhao asked, humoring himself. "You must regale me with all the thrilling details. Join me for a drink?" I knew he wasn't asking me.

"Sorry," I told him, "but we have to go." I turned on my heels but my shoulder pulled back when my uncle placed his hand on it. He leaned in close to make the conversation more private, although, Zhao undoubtedly heard the plea.

"Prince Zuko, show Commander Zhao your respect." He let me go and turned back to the snake of a man we called commander. "We would be honored to join you. Do you have any ginseng tea? It's my favorite." He and the commander walked away. I followed behind at a distance. retaining the heat in my palms begging to be released.


	3. 3-3 Katara

_Ggrrumppbule. _Sokka clutched his stomach and sighed deeply. I could hear the rumbling from all the way on top of Appa's head where I was sitting with Aang. I turned my head to see what he was doing. He had been making some ruckus in the back. He was digging through all the bags and packs, talking to himself. That wasn't unusual for him, but it still made me wonder how we were related sometimes.

"Stomach, be quiet, alright? I'm trying to find us some food." Sokka dug out a tan sack with a draw sting closure. He turned it up and tried to empty the contents into his hand. Crumbs. "Hey!" Sokka said looking up at us, "Who ate all my blubbered seal jerky?" Mmm, I love blubbered seal jerky, but I knew I hadn't eaten it and Aang had already told us that he was a vegetarian. He didn't eat meat, and I must say his reasoning was commendable. I had promised myself to be more conscious about what I was eating, but I was a long way from being a vegetarian. Our sheet of ice didn't produce vegetation in the south pole, so our diets were mostly made up of meats and creams. When the our tribe and the surrounding tribes had been thriving, we would sometimes get shipments of fruits, vegetables, and breads. Some of the fishing nets we set brought up sea kelps, but those weren't really my favorite.

Aang made a face that told me he had at least had something to do with the missing meat, even if he hadn't eaten it.

"Oh," he said to Sokka. "That was food? I used it last night to start our fire. Sorry."

"You what?" Sokka exclaimed. "Guess that's why the flames smelled so good." he finished in a longing, sarcastic voice.

In the distance, the mountains of the Southern Air Islands were nearing us.

"The Patola Mountains! We're almost there!" Aang's voice rang out with such excitment. I felt a pit forming in my stomach. What if we get there and the place is destroyed by the war efforts the Fire Nation made. What if they did something terrible with the bodies and their bones were left in the same place that Aang's people had died. What if some of the Fire Nation stayed there to set up camp, or booby trapped the place as they had left their war ship that had gone on. These were the thoughts that flew around my head as we got closer. Maybe none of that happened, maybe we would find a small hidden group of secret Airbenders who escaped the torment of the Fire Nation.

"Aang, before we get to the temple, I want to talk to you about the Airbenders." We had only spoken briefly and indirectly bout these possibilities.

"What about them?" he asked.

"Well, I just want you to be prepared for what we might find." I told him. I tried to meet his eyes, but he wouldn't look directly at me. "The Fire Nation is ruthless. They killed my mother, and they could have done the same to your people."

"Just because no one has seen an Airbender, doesn't mean the Fire Nation Killed them all." Aang spoke with the confidence of child. Strange for me to have felt that way being hardly more than a year older than him, but my brother's and my life brought us up to be a little less confident in the good things.

When the Fire Nation came for our tribe, they killed my mother, and dozens of others. They took my father from us by forcing his hand to lead the remaining people we had to fight in the war against them. We haven't seen either of our parents since I was eight years old, and we would never see one of them again. I frequently thought that the same might be true of our father, but I always managed somehow to push it to the bak of my thoughts.

"They probably escaped." he went on to tell me.

"I know it' hard to except..." I started.

"You don't understand, Katara. The only way to get to an Airbender Temple is on a flying bison." Aang patted Appa's head affectionately. "And I doubt the Fire Nation has any flying bison. Right, Appa?" Appa grunted in what I had assumed to be approval. The thick clouds were begining to thin and suddenly appeared a wall of rock that was the side of one of the mountains. Appa had clearly navigated this terrain, or lack there of, before. Without warning we started heading directly upwards instead of forward. Aang held the reigns, but Sokka and I grabbed whatever we could. The air was thin and cold that high up. I was colder than I had been in days.

We made it to the top of the steep incline without falling off to our deaths. There were lush trees with dark green leaves and fruits that floated upwards instead of dropping on the peak. And just over the peak, a beautiful stone city was carved right into the peak of the next mountain over. Winding paths lead to turrets topped with Amazing blue roofs.

"There it is. The Southern Air Temple." Aang sounded so glad to see his home.

"Aang, it's amazing!" Amazing wasn't the word. Amazing fall short of how I really felt about it. This was unlike anything I had ever seen before, and I had no words to describe it.

"We're home, buddy. We're home." Aang and Appa both let out a sigh of contentedness.


	4. 3-4 Zhao

"...And by years end, the Earth Kingdom capitol will be under our rule. The Fire Lord will finally claim victory over this war." I finished explaining to the outcast prince the brief version of our plans in my personal tent. We had been stationed in this desolate Earth Kingdom bay for far too long, but at least I got some sense of home in my quarters.

The moment I saw the disbanded ship floating into a docking space, I knew what I was up for. Zuko had lied to me with the first words out of his filthy mouth, and his uncle, a poor excuse for a war hero, tagging along hanging on Zuko's whims. I invited them back for more than tea in the tent. I left the map hanging behind the long ornate table we'd seized from the Governor of this town of where ever the hell we were.

"If my father believes that the rest of the world will follow him willingly, then he is a fool." the prince told me. Such insolence.

"Two years at sea has done little to temper your tongue, Prince Zuko." I sat beside he at the table and poured myself some tea. Ginseng. It wasn't my favorite, but I was trying to be hospitable. I took a small sip and set the cup down without picking it up again. "So, how is your search for the Avatar going?" I asked him sneeringly. I knew he knew I knew, yet I played along. I needed answers after all. The old man knocked down a display of antique spears to our right. The trembling nerves of liars and cowards frequently find themselves in clumsy situations when confronted. The fool apologized profusely for the mishap, assuring us that it was entirely his fault. As if we weren't sitting right there when it happened.

"We haven't him yet." Zuko told me.

"Well," I said, "Did you really expect to? The Avatar has been dead for a hundred years." Zuko never was good at lying, even as a child. He wore all his emotions on his face, right next to the disfiguring scar that left his left eye and ear burned two years ago before. "Unless you've found some evidence that the Avatar is alive." I provoked.

"No." he insisted. "Nothing."

"Prince Zuko. The Avatar is the only one who can stop the Fire Nation from winning this war." I'd had it with the game. In moments I would know the truth, whether it be by the traitorous child before me or by other means I'd had arranged. "If you have an ounce of loyalty left, you will tell me what you've found."

"I haven't found anything! It's like you said. The Avatar probably died a long time ago." Zuko stood stiffly from the chair he had been setting in. "Come on, Uncle. We're going."

Ahh, but he didn't go. He and his uncle were enemies of the state. They did not go because they were blocked by the guards at the door. They were more loyal to the Fire Nation than those two royal outcasts.

Only moments later, the flap of my tent open revealing my head of intelligence. He had come to personally share with me that he had done my bidding.

"Commander Zhao, we have interrogated the whole crew, per your instructions." he assured me. That meant they needed to use methods other than questioning on at least one of the men. "They have confirmed that Prince Zuko had the Avatar in custody, but let him escape."

"Now, Zuko. Remind me. How, exactly, did your ship get damaged?"


End file.
